> >In my mind, the key point is the effect of dietary restriction. I have
> intuitively felt that this was the most plausible trigger that switches
> bees from short lived to long lived, in anticipation of a dearth period,
> whether summer drought or temperate winter.


Certainly a plausible hypothesis, Pete, but I do not see support for it re
the winter diutinus bees, which are normally produced during time of
relative resource abundance, due to the presence of copious beebread from
fall pollen flows--refer to Mattila and Otis' studies.

And in order to successfully winter, those diutinus bees cannot be
starved--they need to fully develop their fat bodies and Vg levels.

I suspect that the epigenetic changes induced in larvae by inadequate
feeding indeed trigger upregulation of survival physiology, but not clear
on whether it applies to diutinus bees.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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